Mortgage lender HDFC Ltd has hiked its home loan rates by 25 basis points effective March 1, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. With this, the home loan rates offered by HDFC will start at 9.20 per cent.

However, the lender has a limited period festive season offer, under which borrowers with credit scores of 760 and above can avail home loans at 8.70 per cent till March 31.

With this rate hike, HDFC Ltd has now passed on the entire rate hike by the six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the borrowers. The MPC has hiked the policy rate by 250 basis points since May 2022, and so has HDFC Ltd.

In comparison to the rates offered by HDFC Ltd, the country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), with the largest home loan book, is offering a special rate of 8.85 per cent to its home loan borrowers with 800 and above credit score till March 31.

ICICI Bank is offering a rate of nine per cent to borrowers with a credit score of 800 and above as its festive offer pricing, till February 28. And, for Bank of Baroda, the home loan rates are ranging from 8.90 per cent to 10.50 per cent depending on the credit score of the borrower.

Going by the limited period festive season offering, HDFC Ltd is seen to be offering one of the lowest rates on home loans in the market.

Meanwhile, Punjab National Bank and Kolkata based Bandhan Bank have decided to hike their marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR). While Punjab National Bank has raised its MCLR by 10 bps, with effect from March 1, and accordingly the overnight to three year MCLR will now range from 8 per cent to 8.80 per cent, Bandhan Bank’s hike in MCLR hike will be effective from February 28. Its overnight to 3-year MCLR is now ranging from 6.71 – 10.96 per cent.

Other major banks such as SBI, Axis Bank, and Bank of Baroda have also raised their MCLR in the aftermath of the MPC raising the benchmark repo rate by 25 bps to 6.50 per cent.

This was the sixth consecutive rate hike undertaken by the rate setting body to keep the headline inflation under tolerable limits.

Meanwhile, the weighted average lending rates (WALR) of banks on fresh loans increased by 125 bps to 8.88 per cent from April 2022 to December 2022. And, WALR on outstanding loans increased by 78 bps whereas Weighted Average Domestic Term Deposit Rate (WADTDR) rose by 75 bps. Given that RBI has increased rates further in February 2023, the interest rates are anticipated to continue rising for the next few months.